How to improve user experience? How to invent new ideas? Why are some designs changing? How to ensure that new ideas actually improve the user experience (UX)?
There are many more design related questions for sure. In this blog we will start to provide you with design insights, explain what is important to us, what is our way of working, our project objectives, evaluations and conclusions as well.
In short: how we design Sailfish OS.
A fluff piece, of course, but still somewhat interesting in the run-up to Sailfish OS 2.0.
Hello, Jolla, this is the U.S… I know, we have not been best of friends in the past. And you might not believe it, but most of us know that our phones suck. Can you help us out and start making the Jolla phone for U.S. consumption? Please? I promise I will get rid of my four year old crappy smart phone that I can’t stand, and run out and buy one asap. Thanks.
I’m still waiting for it. It’s a looong wait. Supposedly something is coming this year, but the best hope for us is Jolla releasing a handset with universal LTE modem that would work everywhere. Since major SoC manufacturers are already making them (Intel and Qualcomm at least), there is a chance it will happen.
Of course if Jolla would choose some older SoC for their next handset, we’ll have to wait for several years more…
Edited 2015-04-13 17:03 UTC
They are avoiding the American market due to the software patent situation there. Since they are not planning on selling any phones there, I doubt they will make any that would work there either.
“Incompatible devices” belong to the past. See my post above. Software patents situation isn’t much better in Europe by the way, despite the formal ban on them. Patent trolls have workarounds.
Edited 2015-04-15 04:31 UTC
I still can’t help but feel like the UI (UX…) is overly complex and that they want to reinvent themselves every iteration.
To go with a car analogy: the steering wheel and pedal concept really hasn’t been changed since their invention, and no one finds that to be a problem.
My first smartphone was a Palm Pré 2 and its UI was simple and perfect, the implementation was just buggy and slow.
After that came the beautiful and perfectly implemented N9, which unfortunately had a UI that required too much user input (read: swipe ’till you get nuts). It was fast though and had some good touches, but overall, it was a perfect example of over-engingeering.
It is a good sign that they are going for some static options like putting an app in the same location on the home screen. It bugged me in iOS and still does on my current Android that all these apps change from location in the multitask view, it’s just irritating because you have to constantly assess the situation, which is disorienting.
Even though they have improved on Meego, it is still over-engineered:
-The top down menu looks fancy, but sliding down in an app is problematic, because it’s already in use to scroll down. It is however a good idea to let go of the top down menu, currently in use in other mobile OS’s, it’s a location that’s simply out of reach for one handed users. I am glad they are looking for new ways, but it’s not all that either.
– They still have too many screens to swipe to, (although it’s an improvement that sliding left or right will always put you in the same location, meego had me confused a lot of time there too, often needing three swipes to finally be at the correct location).
– the only screens they actually need are home and events. One can be implemented as a pull up screen. The other as a left or right swipe…
– the new program menu can be easily opened as a new app.
– That partner space has me completely alluded, I hope it’s just what the program is supposed to be?
Keep it simple, Palm had it nailed, Gnome even proves it can be scaled to a(more or less) decent desktop interface.
The old Maemo was interesting, as it was very much Debian on a pocket sized device. Now however it is about as similar to a Linux distro as Android is.
I’ve only limited exposure to Android for comparison, but my experience with Sailfish is that it still has the feel of Linux, as long as you stick to the command line. Maybe that’s a bit impractical for everyday use, but it’s reassuring to be able to clone some source with git, build it with autoconf and run it without having to leave the phone.
Edited 2015-04-13 22:36 UTC
Not at all. It’s Mer based, and as close to Linux distro as Debian or openSUSE.